Chương 172: 2 Fakes VS 1 Real

Wu Kangming's first move happened so fast that Li Yuan almost missed it, the floating sword blurring forward in a thrust that would have gone through his heart if he hadn't already started moving the moment he sensed the attack coming, and even then, the blade still caught his sleeve.

"Thread Cutting," Wu Kangming said.

"First iteration." Li Yuan's eyes went wide when he felt his connection to his spiritual energy start to waver and shake. That casual strike had done more than just cut through his sleeve, it had severed some of his spiritual pathways, if he had been a tiny bit slower in reacting… He didn't even want to think about what would have happened. Mo Qingyin didn't say anything, she acted.

Her black flower exploded outward into dozens of smaller blooms that filled the air around them with poisonous pollen and razor-sharp petals at the same time, The technique was impressive enough that any cultivator would have had to either back off or waste a lot of energy dealing with the defense problem it created. Wu Kangming did neither of those things, his sword moved through a complex pattern where each swing somehow hit multiple targets at the same time.

Everywhere the blade passed, Mo Qingyin's attacks stopped existing, the petals and the pollen both vanishing like they had never been there in the first place.

"How..." Mo Qingyin started to say and then had to throw herself sideways because the sword changed direction in the middle of its swing and nearly took her head off.

"Thread Cutting, second iteration," Wu Kangming explained in a tone like he was teaching a lesson in a classroom rather than trying to kill both of them at the same time.

"The first cuts physical connections. The second severs the bond between spiritual energy and its manifestations." Li Yuan used the moment when Wu Kangming's attention was on Mo Qingyin to launch his own attack and the Hollow Sword Dao wasn't as showy as his old Ocean's Will techniques had been, but it had advantages those techniques didn't. The blade materialized out of empty space behind Wu Kangming and aimed at the base of his spine.

Without turning around, without giving any sign whatsoever that he had even sensed the attack coming, Wu Kangming's floating sword split apart into three identical copies and two of them kept pushing Mo Qingyin while the third moved to intercept Li Yuan's strike with a precision that felt insulting. The impact when their blades met sent shockwaves rolling through the clearing as small trees got ripped out of the ground and the nearby stream rippled like something had hit it.

Li Yuan felt his arms go numb all the way up to his shoulders from the force of it and he kept thinking how was an outer disciple generating this amount of raw power?

"Sword Spirit Manifestation," Wu Kangming commented.

"My teacher says your Hollow Sword Dao has potential but that it's incomplete, you're trying to embody nothingness without understanding what nothingness is." Li Yuan didn't have time to start wondering about who and where this teacher was before all three sword copies blurred into motion at once. Their attacks came from different angles, with each strike flowing into the next one in a continuous stream that gave no space for any kind of counterattack.

Fighting it felt like trying to stand against a waterfall that was made out of blades. Mo Qingyin's voice cut through all of it: "Switch!" Li Yuan didn't think twice about it, they had never fought together before this moment, but some tactical calls were universal, he disengaged from the sword barrage and traded positions with Mo Qingyin in one smooth motion to throw off their opponent's rhythm.

Mo Qingyin used the small opening to go all in on her most devastating technique, her hands blurring through a long series of seals as she pulled out three more black seeds and then she called out "Bloom of the Hundred Poisons!" The seeds burst open into a jungle of twisted and wrong looking plants, thorny vines whipping through the air in every direction while flowers that had no business existing sprayed clouds of toxins in every color imaginable.

The air around the demonic plants seemed to warp and bend like reality itself was having trouble containing them. For a moment even Wu Kangming seemed thrown off by how deeply wrong the technique felt, his sword copies flickered and their coordination broke as he adjusted to deal with what was in front of him now.

Li Yuan pressed on that advantage, his Hollow Sword streaming with void energy as he pushed through a complex series of strikes that targeted different angles and forced Wu Kangming to split his focus between the physical attacks coming at him and Mo Qingyin's botanical nightmare spreading around them. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Interesting combination," Wu Kangming admitted while his swords danced through patterns that kept getting more complex.

"The void energy disrupts spatial relationships while the demonic plants attack through multiple vectors at the same time. Against most opponents this would be checkmate." Something in the way he said that sent warning signals firing through every tactical instinct Li Yuan had and he started to pull back but it was too late by then.

"Unfortunately for you," Wu Kangming continued, "my teacher specializes in dealing with this type of situation. Sword Spirit Art: Absolute Territory!" The air crystallized and there wasn't any other way to describe what happened, everything within a ten meter radius of Wu Kangming became sharp and it felt like reality itself had been transformed into a blade with infinite edges facing in every direction. Mo Qingyin's demonic plants withered and were cut into pieces so small they might as well have never existed.

The air seemed to bleed as unseen edges sliced through it and created a high pitched keening sound that made Li Yuan's teeth hurt from hearing it.

"Fall back!" Li Yuan shouted because he understood what this was, it was a domain, something that should have been impossible for someone at Wu Kangming's cultivation level to produce and yet here it was, a space where everything became a weapon under its master's control. Mo Qingyin tried to retreat but she was a fraction too slow and one of Wu Kangming's sword copies caught her in the shoulder and passed through her flesh. She stumbled with black blood spraying from the wound.

"First blood," Wu Kangming noted.

"Though I suppose that's not blood is it, more like the essence your Master used to construct your vessels." Li Yuan ground his teeth together; this was spiraling out of control faster than he could manage it. Their target wasn't only talented, but his combat ability was operating on a different level than his cultivation rank had any right to allow.

"We need to end this now," Li Yuan called over to Mo Qingyin.

"Go all out, hold nothing back!" She nodded and her wound was closing as she drew on the power the Masked One had given them both. Their bodies might have been artificial constructs, but that came with its own advantages like healing that was faster than normal and reserves of power that went well beyond what their apparent cultivation level should have allowed.

They attacked at the same time, Mo Qingyin unleashing her arsenal of demonic techniques all at once while Li Yuan pushed his Hollow Sword Dao as far as it would go. The void energy around his blade intensified until it started eating away at reality itself and creating patches of pure nothingness that even Wu Kangming's domain had difficulty dealing with.

For a moment it seemed to be working, the void energy was negating Wu Kangming's domain while Mo Qingyin's endless waves of demonic plants kept providing cover and distraction. The combination pushed him backward and his sword copies flickered and then vanished as he was forced to bring them back together into a single blade just to have enough power to hold his defense. Then Wu Kangming smiled.

"Thank you for this fight, my teacher says I've learned enough now so let me show you what a sword path looks like. Sword Spirit Art: Azure Edge!" His blade blurred and left behind a trail of blue light that seemed to cut through the concept of distance itself. One moment he was on the back foot and the next moment...

Li Yuan felt it before he saw it, a line of severance passing through everything in its path, Mo Qingyin's remaining plants, the ground, the air itself, all of it split apart like reality had been divided by the sharpest blade that had ever existed. Mo Qingyin never got the chance to make a sound, the Azure Edge caught her in the middle of her technique and cut through her defenses like they weren't even there.

Her body came apart and the cuts were so clean that for a moment all the pieces stayed where they were like someone had drawn lines through a painting rather than cut through a person. Then she collapsed and her body dissolved into small motes of black energy that faded away. Her soul, which was bound to the Masked One by contract, would return to wherever it was kept, assuming it survived having its vessel destroyed like that.

Li Yuan felt something that was grief even though he hadn't liked Mo Qingyin during the short time they had worked together, but they were similar in ways that mattered, both of them trapped serving a master they had no way of escaping from and both of them trying to make something workable out of a terrible situation. And now she was gone.

"I am sorry about your companion," Wu Kangming said and he sounded like he meant it.

"But you left me no choice. Will you retreat now? I would prefer not to destroy another soul today." Li Yuan wanted to run more than he had wanted anything, every tactical instinct he had was screaming at him that this opponent was on a different level and that continuing was only going to end with his own destruction, but the problem was...

"I can't," he said.

"The contract compels me to keep going until I either capture you or am destroyed in the attempt, free will isn't something the Masked One allows his servants to have." Wu Kangming nodded like that confirmed something he had figured out.

"Then let us end this, I promise to make it clean." Li Yuan gathered up everything he had left and pushed all of it into one final attack, the Hollow Sword Dao might be incomplete like Wu Kangming had pointed out but it was everything he had. His blade blazed with void energy as he charged forward and looked for any opening in his opponent's defense. For a brief stretch of time their blades met again and again in what seemed to be an equal exchange.

Li Yuan moved with everything he had learned across both his life and his death, every strike aimed at a vital point and every defense calculated to create the opening for a counter. But it wasn't enough, and it was never going to be enough no matter how much he put into it. The Azure Edge flashed one more time and Li Yuan felt his artificial body begin to come apart. The cut was so clean that there was no pain at all, just a strange sensation of separation like he was a puzzle being taken apart by careful hands.

As his consciousness started to fade, Li Yuan caught one last look at Wu Kangming's face and the young man looked sad but not like he regretted what he had done, it was the expression of someone who understood what the weight of killing felt like but had accepted it as something necessary. And then, before everything went dark, Li Yuan saw something behind Wu Kangming that sent a spike of pure terror through what was left of his fading mind.